No. Never. I can’t. I failed. These are words of a fixed mindset.
Will. Try. I can’t, yet. I failed, but I will try again. These are growth mindset words.

We have been learning about growth mindset since the beginning of the school year. Growth mindset is a state of mind where you are willing to try new things, to fail and try again. To learn, you need this mindset. The other mindset we learned about was the fixed mindset. In fixed mindset, you feel stuck, not wanting to try. But you can have both. Maybe you have a fixed mindset on your ability to do math, but you are an emerging artist. You just have to be able to recognize it.

One of the assignments we did was to make a chart of things we had growth mindsets in, and things we had fixed mindsets in. Then we wrote a paragraph explaining one of the fixed mindsets, and how we could change it to a growth.

‘One thing that I have a fixed mindset in is my clumsiness. I either have terrible luck or the world is out to get me. I have sprained my wrist, two fingers and my ankle. I fractured my growth plate, ripped my leg open and bruised my muscle. On Saturday I almost gave myself a concussion. Plus all my non severe ones. My mom says it’s because I don’t have great control over my limbs, and so because I’m so gangly, I hurt myself a lot. That’s probably true, but I don’t know how I can fix that. That’s my fixed mindset.-Alivia W’

Another assignment was to create a ‘growth mindset selfie’. Each one of us created a goal. And, of course, it had to be approved. So each time you went up, you would wait 10 minutes to get critiqued, and most often sent back with feedback. I didn’t get approved until the second day.

Once they were approved, we had to find a selfie to put the quote on. I had one from the beginning of the year that I used. I ended up being the first one approved. But the thing was, after they were approved, THEY WENT ON THE WALL. And I don’t think they’re coming down for a while. So now my face is on the wall. I guess it’s not so bad, but still. It’s my face.

I learned a lot about myself in this unit. I never realized what I had a fixed mindset in before. Now I can improve it!